Ryan: No 'sidetrack' to social issues

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan insisted Tuesday that while the media and the Democratic Party were trying to sidetrack Republicans with social issues, the GOP is dedicated to tackling economic issues.

“It’s not troubling for me” that there is conversation about social issues, the Wisconsin Republican said on CBS’s “This Morning.” “I think that’s more about the media, and maybe the Democrats who are trying to move it in that direction.”

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“I don’t think we’re going to have a sidetrack into social issues,” Ryan asserted.

The Wisconsin Republican said that Republican presidential candidates were mostly talking about economic issues.

“I think what the candidates are mostly talking about are the fiscal issues, the economic issues, and the choice of two futures that the country’s going to have to make in the fall,” Ryan said. “When it all comes down to it, we’re going to be really talking about the economic issues, which are the driving issues at the front of the minds of the American people.

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum has been making a similar point to Ryan, arguing that the media was framing him as a social issues candidate when his focus had been largely on economic issues.

“All reporters in the back, they say, ‘Oh there’s Santorum talking about social issues again,’” Santorum said Monday, according to NBC. “No, I’m talking about freedom.”

Recently, the national discussion has segued into some social issues, including a proposed — and later altered — Obama administration mandate for employers to provide birth control insurance coverage, gay marriage bills progressing in Maryland and New Jersey and a controversial bill requiring ultrasounds before abortions in Virginia.